Mother Nature herself has embarrassingly defeated me. She has employed all of her high powers to conquer me, and I have submissively and without dignity conceded to her higher will.

2 days ago, the temperature was about 14 degrees Celsius. For all you old school chumps or Americans, that’s approximately 58 degrees Fahrenheit. Considerably warm by my standards, especially for the end of March. Mother Nature knew that I had an 8 kilometer running race this morning (PowerBar Spring Run-Off 8K), so she lowered her temperature down to 0 degrees Celsius (32 Fahrenheit) and she dumped millions of large fluffy wet snowflakes down on me. Waking up without much time to get to my race this morning, I threw some clothes on quickly without too much consideration and took the subway to my race. The plan was to take off my jogging pants and sweater near the beginning of the race and run the race with shorts and a t-shirt. Not bloody likely considering the weather, so I decided to run the race with my sweater and my jogging pants, both of which are far from being water resistant.

As a result, I ran the race weighing about 10 pounds more than my body weight. Then Mother Nature decided to blow a very hard wind at me, along with the snowflakes protruding my eyes. Half the race I could barely see 2 meters in front of me, but I kept going. Just as I was thinking that Mother Nature had already had her final laugh, she throws one more sucker punch at me. The course consisted of some very steep inclines and declines, which I was managing okay for the first 7.8 kilometers or so. The last 200-meter stretch was a very long steep hill, all the way to the finish line. So much for the finish-line sprint that I had thoroughly looked forward to. I got to the finish line and felt like dying, it was the most difficult run I’d ever endured, and Mother Nature didn’t help one single bit.

In hindsight, my time wasn’t too bad; it was 34 minutes and 10 seconds (107th overall out of 1246). (Full results) I had someone tell me after the race that his time was the same as his regular 10K time, so that made me feel better too. Here are some pictures of me in my defeated state.

Today’s running attire

View of the snowstorm from my balcony

http://www.blogger.com/profile/16252632293116411353 iBrett

There are few things I find more annoying than balmy weather followed by wet snow and high winds. That’s enough for Mother Nature to beat me down.

What time are you used to running in an 8-km distance?

http://www.blogger.com/profile/04454437680686627778 Jim

Yeah, it’s hellish out there compared to last weekend.

I like to aim for 6 minute miles, so 30 minutes would be a good time for me to shoot for, but under normal circumstances, I’d be happy with 31-33 minutes. Especially due to my lack of training over the winter. I didn’t run as much as I would have liked this winter, but hockey and other activities kept me active at least. Do you run?

http://www.blogger.com/profile/16252632293116411353 iBrett

No I don’t run. I’m notoriously slow. I used to play softball, back in the day, and when the team would go for a run I’d be trailing by a rather embarrassing distance – even the “not so fit” players would beat me. Cycling is my sport of choice – though I’m not as serious about it as I once was. Sadly, my road bike sits in my parents basement in St. Catharines. I only brought my fat moutain bike to Alberta (like you, I question the safety of riding on the road in some of Canada’s larger cities). The mountain bike has been useful, though, since Edmonton has a great trail network.

Anonymous

Barry said: That is quite an accomplishment for someone who doesn’t train.I bet if you ran regularly you could do it in 30 minutes and then you would be in the top 40.

http://www.blogger.com/profile/04454437680686627778 Jim

Barry, I will hopefully be training more as the weather gets warmer. I have a 10k coming up on May 1st. Even if I am able to get my time down to 30 minutes, it wouldn’t be the top 40 under normal circumstances. Everyone that ran the race on Saturday had their worst times for an 8k But I’m definitely going to aim to do an 8K in 30, and I’d like to do my next 10K in less than 39 minutes.

http://elektric.kat.free.fr/ Frenchie

I use to jog (not run)5 miles a day so I can appreciate the problems you had. At least you finished the race and in good time.